There are times that I still can't believe I moved to Minnesota. Growing up in Florida, I never even saw snow until 1989 (6th grade?) when a freak once-in-a-century storm covered Panama City in about an inch of snow. The town was shut down for at least a week, especially since the closest snow plows were 5 hours away in Atlanta. I remember one time school was canceled; it was not because of a blizzard, not because of snow, and not because of ice. The temperatures were in the low 40's/upper 30's and the powers that be were afraid the buses were would have trouble starting.
Now it's different. Now when it's 11º outside in the morning, I honestly think "it's not going to be that cold today" and I don't go warm up my car. I am also starting to fear ice. I thought falling down on the ice in the driveway was something that old people did. Late last month, I fell in my in-law's driveway. Not only did I rip holes in my pants, I hurt my knee pretty bad. It hurt for about three weeks to the point where I was seriously considering going to see the doctor. Either I had the wrong idea about only old people getting hurt, or I am getting old myself.
I think it's more the latter. One of my professors was giving a lecture and could only find "really old data" from 2002. My first thought was "2002 wasn't that long ago!" Then I realized 2002 was seven years ago. Seven years ago most of my classmates couldn't buy cigarettes or spray paint. Then I realized that the kids (see, I used the word "kids") starting college this year were born in the 1990's. Then I realized that I see girls born in 1994 coming in to the pharmacy to buy birth control all the time. And this year I'll probably see a lot of girls born in 1995 doing the same. I was starting my senior year in high school in 1995!
It's going to be 34º tomorrow. I just hope I don't fall in the driveway and break a hip while I'm running outside to tell the kids to stay off my lawn.
No comments:
Post a Comment